You may have a reflex to reach for your mouse whenever you sit at a computer. If you have a laptop, you might just move your hand lower and skim your fingers over the trackpad. But anyone who has sat at a desktop for long periods of time has it ingrained in them.
The combination of moving around your computer with your mouse or trackpad, as well as using keyboard commands, can help you get the most out of your machine. Most people are way past needing to look at their keyboard to type and can make their way from place to place rather efficiently. But, if you want to take your productivity up a notch and efficiently make your way around your workspace, you can let your mouse do almost all the work when you use Kando.
I’m done with OneNote — here’s what I’m using now
I left OneNote not for something better, but for something that fit how I think and work today.
Kando is unconventional but effective
You can move around freely however you like
Kando is a cross-platform application that works in a pie menu format. You can download and install it in a few different ways and it runs on Windows, Linux, and macOS. It turns how you interact with your computer upside down, as you can get around everywhere with simple directions from your mouse.
Kando is designed to work best with a mouse and a cursor. But it works just fine with a trackpad. So, if you don’t like using a mouse, you can still use Kando and get more out of your computer.
Essentially, Kando creates a menu format with interconnecting sections that you can direct your cursor towards in order to get to the action that you want. To bring up the sample menu of Kando, press Control + Space. The menu pops up and shows you the main menu with all the submenus surrounding it. You can move your cursor in whichever direction your preferred application or app is in order to access it.
You can assign all kinds of actions to the menus, making it so you don’t have to touch your keyboard other than to get the menu up. For example, you can set one of the functions to be Copy, replacing your need to press Ctrl (or Command) + C. Another can be Paste, so you don’t have to type Ctrl (or Command) + V.
After using Kando for a while, I started to get the hang of it. Initially, it was a bit of a slow process to learn it. I felt the urge to just type in commands or click a few times with my mouse to get to a file or application. But once you understand what is where in your Kando menus, you can move through your computer quickly and efficiently.
Assign them different open commands and go
Using the Examples Menu is great because it has a lot of common locations or commands set up for you to look through. There are menus for previous workspace, next workspace, audio, applications, clipboard, web links, windows, bookmarks, and more. These pie pieces take you to different areas of your computer and let you perform tasks in each one.
In the web links menu in the Examples Menu, there’s a direct link to Google, so you can bring up a search without ever touching a browser or your keyboard. This is a quick way to be able to search for something faster than you have previously been able to before.
What I found most exciting about Kando is that you can create your own menus, making the experience a personal endeavor. You can choose the actions, locations, and tasks that you most often perform and make shortcuts for them.
…once you understand what is where in your Kando menus, you can move through your computer quickly and efficiently.
I frequently go into Finder, which is where I’m able to find everything, on my Mac, so I added that as a menu. I also added in a shortcut to Slack, which my team uses to communicate with one another. Two drags of my mouse open up Slack as I’m quickly moving around my computer.
I’m excited about continuing to use this and finding more ways to navigate my screen and applications more efficiently. I’ve tested it throughout personal time and during a workday and I find myself getting things done a bit quicker than I used to.
Advanced tricks in Kando are super efficient
Take your usage to the next level
It’s important to remember that these are set up like a pie for a reason, as you can click in the general area of the “slice” to get to where you want to go. You don’t have to click each icon as you go. You can drag the cursor from one place to another to click through the different menus more quickly. This is known as Marking Mode, so you can click and move your cursor to navigate to the next menu in a natural movement of your wrist.
A helpful trick is Turbo Mode. Once you have memorized your routes, hold down Command, Shift, Alt or Ctrl and just use your cursor. There’s no need to click at all in that scenario, as Kando follows your movements to open up the next menus.
Executing various macros and simulating hotkeys are two of the advanced uses in Kando. You can add them to your submenus and they are great ways to avoid having to type multiple sequences on your keyboard. You can just save them as a part of a sub-menu and then move your cursor to that part to enact them. You can also enable a wait for fade-out animation, so the task will take place after the Kando window is closed.
Kando makes your mouse a super tool
Adding Kando to your computer can help you maneuver around it more efficiently. You can use this menu platform to quickly get to all different areas of your computer with the drag of a mouse or trackpad. The cursor guides you through different tasks and you can customize it to suit your needs. Kando takes some getting used to. But if you stick with it, you’ll find yourself only touching your keyboard when you absolutely have to.
